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Google's Fuchsia will run Android apps, thank flip

Where Fuchsia meets past

IT'S OK. You can relax. You won't have spunked a fortune away on Android apps if, as is rumoured, the forthcoming Fuchsia operating system replaces Android.

An update to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) spotted by 9to5Google has confirmed that a version of the ART runtime that powers Android will be a part of the new system, meaning that existing apps will continue to work.

The read.me file held within the new Fuchsia repository explains that a .far file will be created (the Fuchsia equivalent of a .apk in Android) which will allow the apps to run normally.

Although we don't know for certain what this mysterious new modular OS is for, it is becoming increasingly likely that it will be a replacement for both Android and Chrome, supporting the best of both worlds and now, it would seem, providing continuity for existing users. It can also run code written is Swift, suggesting that it could even cross into hallowed iOS territory.

Because of that modular structure, it can be slipstreamed to run on everything from a Raspberry Pi to a mainframe and all points in between, making it sound on paper, exactly what Microsoft and Canonical have hoped to do with their operating systems in previous years.

The fact that neither has been completely successful in doing so means the odds would be stacked against Fuchsia, but if they do get it right, would be a realisation of a holy grail in computing - able to work across chipsets and form factors.

Fuschia can already be tested on selected Pixel devices, but let's be absolutely clear, it should not be anyone's daily driver yet, there's a lot it can't do, and no timescale as to when it will be properly ready.

For that matter, we've still go nothing concrete as to what the heck its for. Google is still maintaining that it's an open-source experiment, no more, no less. μ